Around 5,000 barrels of oil a day is estimated to be leaking from the BP Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico, unleashing a potentially epic environmental and economic disaster in its wake.

To put it in perspective, we use 195,000 barrels more of this finite substance every day here in Ireland.

Since pollution can be defined as an increase in emissions of noxious substances from the economy, the only difference is we are releasing these noxious substances directly into soil, air and water, and, similar to the fate of the Gulf Coast of the US, expecting our environment to take the whack.

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